Keeping 400 students spread across a large
lecture hall engaged for an hour is an undeniable challenge for any teacher.
With the help of the University's Center for Research in Learning and
Teaching (CRLT), two faculty members developed an idea that meets the
challenge and is working in two large Dennison Hall classrooms today.

Tim McKay, associate professor of physics, and Steve Yalisove, associate
professor of materials science and engineering, wanted to find a way to
teach better and for students to learn better in large lecture classes.
They started with an idea that originated with a Harvard physics professor,
Eric Mazur, to use an electronic system that tests students several times
during a class session to see if they are, in effect, receiving what the
lecturer is sending.

Amanda Pitcher, an LSA junior, enters an answer
to a multiple-choice question on a device that measures how well students
understand information presented in lectures. (Photo by Paul Jaronski,
U-M Photo Services)

McKay says they wanted the system to involve participation by the whole
class with immediate results, and they wanted it to be private so each
individual could answer questions without peer influence. "The students
would benefit by a better understanding of the subject matter, through
a higher level of participation and engagement with the lecturer throughout
the presentation," he says. "They are challenged to think and
make decisions in answering questions."

The lecturer, Yalisove says, gets a handle on
what the students are thinking and whether they
understand the material.

For help in developing the idea and for funding
to acquire the equipment that makes it all work, Yalisove and McKay turned to CRLT. In the
1998 winter term, Yalisove and MacKay received
separate Phase I Whitaker Grants (McKay joined him for the Phase II proposal in winter 1999), one of
five grant programs CRLT administers to support improvement and innovations in learning and teaching.

The Gilbert Whitaker Fund for the Improvement of Teachingnamed in honor
of the former provostprovides levels of incentive grants for collaborations
of faculty in and across departments and programs. In this case, the departments
of Physics and Materials Science and Engineering, CAEN, and the colleges
of LSA and Engineering, all provided matching funds to equip large classrooms
on Central and North campuses.

The results were encouraging, says McKay, and, in evaluations, the students
liked the system. "Some said having to answer questions helped keep
them awake, which is a benefit for all concerned," McKay says. However,
the results were anonymous because the devices were not identified with
individual students.

The project caught on with other Department
of Physics faculty. In 2001, Myron Campbell,
professor of physics, was able to secure funds to
fully equip two lecture rooms in Dennison Hall.
Each student now is assigned a hand-held device for
the term, which can be picked up from a cart at the
beginning of each class. Campbell says it adds a
new dimension to both teaching and learning.
"Students are able to participate with the teacher in
understanding the material; they're more intellectually
engaged," he says. "One way I use the system is
to give the students a chance to predict what will
happen during a demonstration. It's very effective."

"I like the instant response, and it helps
Prof. Campbell to explain what's wrong if we don't
understand the material," says Amanda Pitcher, an
LSA junior from Dearborn.

Yalisove says that Materials Science and
Engineering offers no lecture courses the size of
introductory physics, but he will use the system when he
next teaches Introduction to Principles of Materials
Science and Engineering. "It's exciting to see how
the technology is advancing," he says. "Costs to outfit
a classroom have plummeted with the use of
infrared technology. And Intel recently donated 20
laptops to the College of Engineering, fully loaded with
interactive software for use with the smaller classes
we tend to have."

McKay and Yalisove say that faculty and
students at the University are lucky to have the
resources CRLT provides. They say CRLT creates an
environment that stimulates innovation through
collaboration across the University that helps teachers
and students learn from each other.

They note that CRLT has supported their project from the beginning. "They've
been there not only with grant funding, but also with staff involvement.
They ran focus groups of students to test our ideas, which they helped
us think through, and involved other faculty to help refine ideas,"
Yalisove says.